A wide variety of clock mechanisms and clock dials exist in the prior art. Conventionally, clock dials include an hour face with minute indicia formed thereon. As the large minute hand sweeps around the face of the dial, a smaller hour hand moves gradually around the dial.
A wide variety of clock-type sculptures exist previously which represent time in a variety of ways. Often, such sculptures are very difficult to read and are generally unattractive. Various sculptures have utilized water, gears, balls, and tracks to properly indicate time. Although many clock sculptures are functional, they do not serve the purpose of both being attractive and functional.
Various U.S. patents have issued in the past which describe various types of clock mechanisms. U.S. Pat. No. 2,728,187, issued on Dec. 27, 1955, to H. Stamm, describes a watch with an indirectly driven minute hand. In this device, the amount of shake at the minute hand is reduced in such a way that such shake is not noticeable. This reduction of free play of the minute hand is obtained by providing a wheel on the cannon-pinion. The wheel is in meshing relationship with a pinion of the train of gear wheels of the watch. Both the sweep second and minute hands are driven directly.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,747,324, issued on Jul. 24, 1973, to J. Foufounis, describes a chronograph having a minute indicator member, a normal fixed dial which is graduated in minutes, two circular rotary elements which are coaxial with the indicator member. A minute graduation is retrogressive with respect to one of the elements while it is progressive with the other of the elements.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,978,655, issued on Sep. 7, 1976, to R. McGillick, shows a time clock having a revolving face dial. This time clock includes a housing, a watch movement, and a ternary of rotatable shafts cooperating with the watch movement. In this device, the second, minute and hour hands are fixed onto the free ends of the shafts. The second hand is integrally affixed onto the dial face thereby causing rotation of the dial face in union with the second hand through 360 degrees of every minute.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,428,682, issued on Jan. 31, 1984, to M. A. Winter, discloses a clock mechanism including a fixed ring defining an inner annular surface and an outer annular surface. An hour disk is disposed to roll against one of the surfaces so as to traverse the full annular extent thereof once every twelve hours. A minute disk is disclosed to roll against the other of the annular surfaces so as to traverse the full annular extent thereof once every hour. In the embodiment of the invention, the disks define planet gears, with the hour's planet gear being driven by an hour's sun gear so as to roll against the inner ring gear of the fixed ring. The minute's disk defines a planet gear driven by an outer ring gear to roll against the outer minute sun gear defined by the outer annular surface of the fixed ring. The fixed ring may be provided with suitable indicia to define a chapter ring.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,726,000, issued on Feb. 16, 1988, to R. Weiss, shows a timepiece having hour and minute hands of different configurations. These hour and minute hands are operated in a time-maintaining mode through the intermediary of a clockwork.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,885,731, issued on Dec. 5, 1989, to D. W. Massaro, teaches an annular timepiece face that contains a smaller hour portion concentrically positioned within a larger minute portion. The hour portion has an hour hand and hour division marks marking each interval of time on the peripheral hour track. The minute portion has a minute hand a minute division marks marking each interval of time on the peripheral minute track. The hour and minute hands are made to differ in spatial location, size, and color. In addition, correlated visible cues of spatial location, size, and color are used to specify the correspondence between the hour hand and the hour numerals and the minute hand and the minute numerals.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,995,021, issued on Feb. 19, 1991, to S. L. Sullivan, describes an improved clock display having a disk hour hand with an indicator being the minute hand which is located at a position remote for the access of the dial. The minute hand rotates on the hour disk. Time is determined by the relative position of the minute hand about the conventional time display (hours) and the position of the minute hand about its axis (minutes).
It is an object of the present invention to provide a clock dial that is attractive in appearance.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a clock dial that is relatively easy to read.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a clock dial that operates simply and easily.
It is still a further object of the present invention to provide a clock dial that is relatively easy to manufacture and relatively inexpensive.
These and other objects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from a reading of the attached specification and appended claims.